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theres different types of "culling"
"hard" culling is where breeders kill puppies that dont suit their "needs". this process is seriously looked down upon these days unless theres a serious issue (life endangering birth defects, issues that would prevent the puppies from living a relitivly normal life despite vet care ect (ie severe hip defect, water on the brain ect)
"culling" now tends to be more strict spay/neuter contracts (some breeders even go so far as spay/neutering before the pup can go home) to ensure that those undesireable traits cannot be continued on.
i personally have a strict spay/neuter contract, i couldnt "hard cull" an otherwise healthy puppy but i also couldnt knowingly allow a "cull" to be used for breeding purposes.
i dont belive pediatric spay is healthy, so i withhold papers and keep in strict contact with pupy buyers.
Cull? When my puppy gets old enough ... I might take pick of the litter for stud fee
In a sense of the word - that is a type of culling.
Also; You do not always get a good AKC quality from every puppy.
When I was a kid we used to train a German Shepard for show and the classes for learning how had a puppy they were not going to allow registration for because her ear cartilage was broken and the one ear flopped.
Personally; never heard of people killing puppies because they weren't good enough.
I think it happened extensively when the breeds were being developed. Creating any breed requires intense inbreeding which causes problems. It is possible to create a breed without doing that by having a large enough foundation stock but I don't think people knew that back then.
I think the best way to cull is to put limited registration on all puppies until the prove, at a minimum, health and basic temperament clearances. It gets dicey when you start looking at things like conformation as that can be destroyed by the whim of the show crowd.
I knew a breed that Cull He Killed ALL pups he couldnt sell for XX by the time they were 12 weeks old! He was consider the Pro Champ dogs I also know he bred a ***** that had Hip problems!
I know another guy who breed Boxers! He was forced to Cull/Kill a White puppy! Was that or get banded from breed club! Right after that he stopped breeding & showing!
I Killed a puppy once my F had her 1st litter & with 1st born puppy she ate off its Legs. At that time there wernt wheelchairs for dogs with no back legs. Today I would have Saved the puppy & got it a w/c.
I know I have mentioned the 5 homozygous merle Aussie pups that I helped in the rescue. They were born in northern Calif and a neighbor of the breeder heard that at 5 weeks he was going to drown them ( cull them) as they were homozygous merles so she stepped in and rescued them and contacted a rescue group in Arizona that agreed to take them in if they could get them there. I heard about the situation so sent out an E-mail to all my dog friends saying if we could get them to Southern Calif I would take them to Arizona. There was a big Fly Ball tournament in San Diego so one of my friends posted it on the events board and a couple that was going to that event and coming from Northen Ca fostered the pups for a week and dropped them off at my parent's house on the way to San Diego. My parents fostered them for another week. I was able to be at their house for part of the time but due to work not all the time which was why I got my parents to foster.Then on my days off a friend and I drove to Arizona delivered the puppies and spent the night at the home of the woman that took them. All the puppies had defects some were just deaf, some had limited vision some were a combo of the two and one was deaf and blind as his eyes had not even developed. Despite the issues they were like any other puppy and people that met them the week at my parents did not know they were not normal pups except the one that was deaf and blind as his eyes were just slits with nothing there.Yet he amazed everyone as he could follow a person all over and if he bumped into something he bounced off and corrected his direction, and yes they all did find homes.
But I learned from the rescue that it is all too common for pups like this to be culled and sometimes it means they are drowned like this breeder was going to do. I can not imagine drowning a 5 week old puppy and while these dogs were not perfect I dare any one to go tell the families that adopted them they should have been killed. Having known and loved deaf vision limited Phoenix I can tell you she deserved to live and she had a great life because unlike us she did not know she was any different then any other dog as she never knew sound or perfect vision.
This example of culling makes me mad as often these people are breeding two merle coated dogs( not just aussies but any breed with the merle coat) knowing they risk having homozygous merles but see culling as the solution instead of accepting they fact that they have some of these pups and looking for homes for them or better yet breeding their merle to a solid or tri colored dog instead of another merle. I also think drowning a dog is very inhumane.
Culling to me always meant the "hard type" if the pup didn't meet the expectations mentally or physically they were destroyed. I know of some "old school" breeders who do this with primitive breeds. If they did not meet the needs as a productive dog they were destroyed. The first time I heard it, I was a bit shocked but afterwards I understood it. In some ways it might be better as less pets would end up in shelters. IMO.
Dashdog the merle situation is a similar conflict in my breed as well. Now color genetics is a forign subject to me, lol. However I do know for the Great Danes that breeding MerlexMerle or HarlxHarl usually produced dire consequences for pups in high percentages. Its strictly forbiden overseas. Yet allowed here in US. This is not only common to BYB's but also do but also prestigious breeders as well. Despite the high percentage risk this practice is continuously allowed and even encouraged. Pups with the genetic defeats are often than not given to rescues as a sort of "good will." While I don't agree this that mans method of culling I would understand the reason for culling in that aspect.
Again just my thoughts and learning experiences that still continue.
one of my first ever rescues was a completly deaf dane with a malformed eye (blind in one side) from a harl x harl breeding...
a ouple of his siblings were born with no eyes and the entire litter was hearing imparied in some degree...
he was the only one to survie the "hard cull" of the breeder and thats only because who can resist a curly red headed blue eyed 5 yr old offering you all her pocket money to save him...
unfortunatly its all too common.
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